Not all photos will work for compositing. Learn how to find and capture images that will blend together seamlessly by matching things like light intensity, light direction, angle, perspective, and focal length.

Compositing for Beginners | Picture Frame 3 Videos (30:12m)

01 - Picture Frame - Image Analysis & Working with Smart Objects

We begin with a simple exercise of placing a picture and frame from one image into a new scene. Aaron analyzes several images to see what will work best, looking at the light and perspective in each. Then he introduces Smart Objects and how they can help you work faster and non-destructively.

In this section, you will learn to make a simple selection to remove a background and then create realistic shadows using Drop Shadows.

03 - Picture Frame - Color Matching

Even subtle differences in light and color can keep a composite from looking realistic. Learn about check layers which will help guide adjustments so that you can accurately match color and lighting.

Compositing for Beginners | Castle 3 Videos (54:13m)

01 - Castle - Image Analysis

Follow along as Aaron looks at things like the horizon line, perspective distortion, and light to find an image of a castle that will blend seamlessly into our background image.

02 - Castle - Removing a Background & Creating a Fog Effect

We start off by making a selection of the castle to remove the original background. Then we use a custom fog brush to help integrate the castle into the environment.

03 - Castle - Coloring for Composites

Matching color and adding stylistic color can help tie a composite image together. Watch as Aaron uses check layers to match the castle color to the background and add some additional light and color into the environment.

Compositing for Beginners | Portrait 3 Videos (1:00h)

01 - Portrait - Image Analysis

Aaron breaks down how light and perspective can predict how well two photos will match and a method to finding the horizon line in an image where the horizon isn't visible.

Intro to Photoshop Compositing for Beginners

Description

From high-end product photography to wild conceptual scenes, many of the pictures we see are actually two or more photos combined in post-production. If you’ve been searching for a great entry point into the fun and challenging world of image compositing, look no further!

In this tutorial, you will learn how to analyze light, perspective, and camera settings to predict how well two photos will merge. Then we’ll take you into Photoshop and break down the compositing process step-by-step, covering tips and techniques for making selections, finding great composition, and unifying light and color.

What is Compositing?

Image compositing has a very broad and easy-to-understand definition. When you make a composite, you merge two or more photos together to create a seamless final image. This usually involves several steps to ensure that everything looks like it was all captured straight out of camera.

Why Combine Photos in Photoshop?

There are countless reasons that learning to blend photos together can help you both creatively and professionally. Whether you’re working with products, landscapes, weddings, or you just want to create stunning visual effects, the ability to merge two or more photos together will often help you solve a number of creative problems and get the most out of your images.

A Beginner’s Guide

If you’ve ever come up with an idea for a great image but weren’t sure how to capture it in camera, this tutorial can help! Compositing images in Photoshop can help turn your imagination into reality. Whether you plan to merge two images or 200, this is a great place to start.

CREATE REALISTIC FANTASY ENVIRONMENTS

ORIGINAL

Easily Blend Multiple Images

Compositing is one of the most challenging skills to master. It requires knowledge of countless tools within Photoshop as well as a strong understanding of how to find and capture images that will blend together well. Starting your compositing journey has never been easier with our simple approach to the basics of combining pictures in Photoshop.

From Beginner to Pro

We start with the basics, but this tutorial is designed to help artists at every level. We teach the fundamentals and expand upon it by adding in powerful tools, tips, and techniques that can take your blending to the next level.

Our Secrets to Realistic Composites

Image compositing starts with finding and capturing the right photos. We start this tutorial by helping you develop the eyes of a compositing artist, teaching you how to analyze pictures in a way that will help you determine how well they will fit together. Learn the fundamentals of light, perspective, camera settings, and more!

LEARN TO MATCH LIGHTING & COLOR

ORIGINAL

Match Light

Photos are all about light, which is why being able to identify light quality and direction is so important for creating great composites. Learn the differences between soft light and hard light and how to determine the directionality of light to help make sure your subject fits naturally into an environment.

Match Perspective

In order to make everything appear like it was captured in the same environment from the same camera, you’ll want to make sure that the camera height and angle is similar across each photo. We’ll show you some tricks to help you find the vanishing point and horizon line in each image so that you can quickly and easily line up multiple photos in the same scene.

Match Focal Length & Camera Settings

A wide angle lens will exaggerate space and will stretch things out the closer they are to the camera. A telephoto lens will compress space and will typically result in more natural-looking dimensions. Learn to identify differences in focal length, perspective distortion, and depth of field to make sure all of the photos you’re compositing will fit together beautifully.

MATCH PERSPECTIVE AND ANGLES

ORIGINAL

Step-by-Step Tutorials

Like many things in Photoshop, compositing is a process. We’ve created a simple guide to walk you through each step, from determining which photos you should use, to making cut-outs and selections, and tying it all together by adding additional light and color.

Photo Analysis

We don’t just show you how to merge images together, we show you why certain images will work and why certain images won’t. See several examples that demonstrate what happens when the lighting, perspective, and focal length don’t match while we try to find the right photo for the job.

Light, Color & Check Layers

We can’t always trust our eyes in Photoshop. That’s why we teach you to use tools that will help help interpret things like color and luminosity. Learn to match light levels and color saturation between any number of images faster and easier than ever before!

Family Portraits to Creative Concepts

Compositing isn’t just for ultra-conceptual, sci-fi, and fantasy images. Being able to realistically blend multiple images together will help you solve problems like fixing someone’s blinking eyes in a group photo or placing a bride and groom in front of a more romantic scene. Once you’ve mastered the ideas and techniques in this tutorial, you’ll be ready to put your compositing skills to work in a way that’s best for you and your images.

Simple Examples for Advanced Results

There’s no secret to high-end composites. We use simple examples, each blending two images in Photoshop, that will have you feeling confident enough to start combining a dozen photos in no time.

Class Instructor

Aaron Nace

PHLEARN Founder

Aaron Nace is a photographer, Photoshop artist and founder of PHLEARN. He is the #1 Photoshop instructor in the world with millions of YouTube subscribers.

Reviews

karolzachara

Rated 5 out of 5

February 11, 2019

There is no way to describe how much I love these tutorials. Gonna stay here for a couple of months. 🙂

parkerclvs

Rated 5 out of 5

February 7, 2019

I love these tutorials!. Aaron is a great instructor and I love his sense of humor. The tutorials are easy to follow and I feel like I’m learning tons and can’t wait to continue on to another video lesson.

2vmota

Rated 5 out of 5

January 17, 2019

This is an outstanding course! I watched every video of this course on compositing and I many times go back to refresh because there are just so many valuable lessons here. Aaron is the best teacher for Photoshop and Lightroom (Although I haven’t started Lightroom yet). I super enjoy learning from him. He’s truly gifted and this platform is a huge gift as well because we can learn so much. These courses really speed up the process of learning from what would take some people years of trial and error. I simply don’t have much patience to do that. I love the Phlearn platform so much, I just wish I had founded out about this sooner!

hakki-demirbas

Rated 5 out of 5

January 15, 2019

I love how you break things into beginners to advanced like this tutorial series. There is no information overload, everything is getting imprinted in your head as you follow and amount of time we spend on topics is just on point. If you have Photoshop installed you need this website along with it.

lillianslookingglass

Rated 5 out of 5

January 4, 2019

I have learned so much! I have been working on compositing for a while, and this tutorial is one I will be referring to a lot, I am sure. There are tools I learned about that I have not used much and will be using A LOT in the the future. I had a lot of facepalm moments because there are things that made so much sense to think about, yet I never really have. I would totally recommend anyone interested in compositing (whether you are new or an old hat to it) to watch this tutorial.

Gabriel Gherca

Rated 5 out of 5

November 22, 2018

This was so so helpful, thank you.

Michael Diederich

Rated 5 out of 5

November 6, 2018

A tremendous amount of practical application of tools I’ve rarely used (select > modify > contract > delete), or even knew how to use correctly. Thanks for this intense and gratifying introduction to my new found compositing future. Aaron and his polished team continue to amaze.

tinalouise.legere

Rated 5 out of 5

October 31, 2018

You’re the best.

Anonymous

Rated 5 out of 5

October 21, 2018

Simply great! Thank you!

kzamojcin

Rated 5 out of 5

October 4, 2018

How did you manage to squeeze so much information into those 5 hrs.. I do not know 😉 Absolutely loved it.

Hugues

Rated 5 out of 5

October 4, 2018

The Solid Color adjustment layer set to Saturation or Hue is absolutely fantastic and helps me get realistic results. Many thanks from France!

Agnesia Lubuk

Rated 5 out of 5

October 1, 2018

Another mindblowing easy to digest and fun course from Aaron. Thanks man, u’ve helped me a lot this last 10 months.

yoojiwon7

Rated 5 out of 5

September 18, 2018

It was fantastic tutorial, Aaron! In particular, I admired that you showed the process of “Selecting suitable photos” for compsite, so that I could solve the problem that I always had. I think this tutorial not just focused on a technical issues, but it gives us a practical knowledge of the real world. And he also gives many Tips! How to use Threshold to analize the Lights between background & subject, How to adjust Hue, Saturation using hyper-Saturated Solid Color, How to find a Horizontal Line in the picture, Why things that are close look darker than far objects, How to draw the reflexion of the surrounding environment that permeates the subject. It’s a lecture that teaches you how to use these knowledges to make more natural composite photo! Thank you again, for your great tutorial!

lgmj

Rated 5 out of 5

September 17, 2018

Did she ever find Tony wandering around Yellowstone?

mel2.0

Rated 5 out of 5

September 14, 2018

As someone who creates photo-composites to help clients visualise their design, I found that this tutorial helped me to elevate my skills to a whole new level. Understanding why certain images do and don’t work well together was extremely helpful. There is some really great content which makes it worth retaking this course a couple of times to help really solidify your understanding. Looking forward to pushing my skills further with future composting episodes. An excellent tutorial to upgrade your compositing skills.

Sylvie Meyers

Rated 5 out of 5

September 6, 2018

Loved it. I feel I learned so much by seeing also what did not work and why.

robert walker

Rated 5 out of 5

September 6, 2018

I have watched many of Aaron’s composition vid’s and always been impressed but he has always left me with a few unanswered questions,This course answers those questions and a lot more i never even thought of.Probably not a complete beginners course but if a complete beginner can understand this,then he/she will be a top class compositor in a lot less time.This course is THE best on composting and i have watched a lot over the years.I am no way near Aaron but i thought I knew a bit about the subject,I know now I dont really but with this course i will.This course is worth the subscription on its own.Thanks Aaron and your Phlearn team, you guys really ROCK. My very best regards Rob

mm.mcleish

Rated 5 out of 5

September 5, 2018

As someone who thought they already knew how to composites quite well… I learned so much from this tutorial! I was not as good as I thought I was! I always struggled to match colour balances and now I can do so easily. I learned how to create seamless composites that the viewer is unsure if it is photoshopped or not. Thanks Aaron!!

Ron Dumont

Rated 5 out of 5

September 3, 2018

Having watched several PhLearn compositing tutorials, this one encapsulates all the essential guidance and techniques. I would say it’s the most efficient one in terms of getting the information across in the amount of time. Excellently done, and is the one I would use a reference guide. Not sure about the “for beginners” in the title given the use of masks and blending modes, but hey if there’s a future one for intermediate/advanced users then count me in! Love the inclusion of the Fog Brush, and it would have been nice to include an action similar to the “Bakster Check Group” .. perhaps a short additional bonus segment? Thanks Aaron and team PhLearn for this most excellent tutorial.

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